For His Honor

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8 NIV

As with most scripture, when a verse begins with the word ‘for’, we are directed to look at the verse before it for context. The verse before this says “Let the wicked forsake their days and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” Isaiah 55:7 NIV

This verse talks about how man, who is born with a sinful nature, should be aware of their thoughts and actions. That they should return to the Lord because the Lord is righteous, not like man. The verse for today is giving the reason for man to turn from their wickedness and either turn or return to the Lord, because He is different than us, mightier than us.

I am so thankful that unlike man, the Lord is willing to forgive and pardon because His ways are not the same as our ways. We are unforgiving, we hold grudges, we count wrongs. God is forgiving, He forgets our sins once He has forgiven them and since He forgets them, He doesn’t count them again.

God’s thoughts are not like our thoughts because He is the Creator. He is the One Who put this world, universe and galaxy into being. Clearly our thoughts can not be like His, we are not God. In as much as our thoughts are not like His thoughts, our ‘ways’ are different. His ‘ways’ are not sinful like ours. He created the world to be perfect and we, as humans, messed that up.

‘My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not My ways.’ We know the Lord’s thoughts are mightier than ours, again we did not have the idea to create an entire world, which means that His ways of doing things are mightier than ours as well. Our ways, how we think something should be done, pale in comparison to how God believes them to be done. The act of forgiving is a beautiful example. God forgives when we come with a genuine repenting heart, where we have been known to withhold forgiveness from another who has genuinely admitted their mistake and asked for forgiveness.

Today, I pray that each one of us would look at our thoughts and the way we do things, compare them to how God wants them thought about and done before we commit to them. If we are taking our thoughts and comparing them to what the Bible, God’s word, says they should be, then we can change our thoughts. If we take how we believe things should be done and compare them to what the Bible says is the way they should be done, then we can change our ways as well.

It all takes time, prayer and willingness to change. Are you willing to commit to the time it takes to change?

“May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14 NIV

I have heard pastors recite this verse before they begin preaching at different times in my life. I find this comforting, not just the verse but also the idea that the shepherd of the congregation that I am sitting in is concerned about what he or she is going to say. Most of the pastors I have had in my life as the shepherd of the churches I attended and currently attend, were and are God-fearing, Spirit-filled servants. It is important to them that they show God’s love and spread His message to everyone so everyone is able to make the choice of whether to accept God’s merciful gift or not. I believe this should be important to any person who stands behind a pulpit and proclaims God’s word.

I have had the privilege of being a guest speaker at my church for over 7 years now and each time I am filled with nerves. Originally those nerves were about not saying something wrong because truthfully I didn’t want to look stupid. I have grown a lot over the years and now those nerves are about not saying something wrong because I don’t want to misrepresent God or lead anyone astray from where God wants them to be. I also don’t want to say anything that God doesn’t want to be said.

As important as it is for pastors, anyone really, speaking to a body of people to make sure they have their hearts and minds in the right place, focused on God, I believe it is equally important as we represent God in our daily lives that we also have our hearts and minds focused on Him. We don’t know what someone might need to hear as we interact with them but God does. If we are willing to open our minds and hearts up to be led to interact with others in the manner in which God knows they need, we will be amazed at how the love of God can flow through each one of us.

As we go about our day today, I pray that we each have the attitude in our minds and hearts of wanting what we think and say to be pleasing to God, not only to help others but to also keep us in line with God’s will.

I hope you have a wonderful day today.

“A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.” John 16:32 NIV

In this verse, Jesus is telling His disciples that His time is now. His time to die for the sins of the world. That He was soon to be arrested and the disciples would flee. He would be put to death on the cross. This was something that Jesus had to do alone, in that no one could take His place, but having His disciples would have been a comfort. Only Peter and another disciple followed Him at a distance, the rest fled.

However, Jesus was not alone, His Father was with Him as He always was during the time that Jesus walked this earth. Jesus was always in communication with God the Father. We should also be in constant communication with God, but we are not Jesus and it is hard for us to maintain that prayer like connection all the time. Our life style is one of being busy and completing many tasks at one time. We do not leave a lot of time for rest in our culture.

God can help with developing that ability to remain as constant as possible in communication with Him. We simply need to ask for help, admitting that this is an area that we are not strong in and Jesus will help us.

Heavenly Father, thank You for always being with us. Help us to remain in constant communication with You. You are our lifeline and we should remain connected to You. In Jesus’s precious name, Amen.

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12 NIV

Moses writes ‘teach us to number our days”. Why would we want to know how many days we have in this life? I have had family members who have lived long lives before moving from this life to the next and I have had family members who have lived what we would consider short lives. The common factor is that none of them knew exactly how many days they would spend here on earth.

I don’t believe most people want to know the number of days they have left because of the anxiety it could cause during the ‘countdown’, but the idea of realizing that we do not have an infinite number of days in this life is important. No matter the length of our lives, it can feel like we have ‘forever’ to do what we want and to get done what we feel should be done.

However, our lives are actually quite short when compared to eternity. By taking the idea of a fixed number of days, we are able to get to work doing what needs to be done. A foolish person wastes away days not focused on eternity, whereas a wise person spends time each day in communication with our Creator, listening for His direction, guidance to do His will. How often have we said ‘I will get to that tomorrow’ when we are thinking about or discussing spiritual matters. Setting aside time to spend with God should not be put off until tomorrow because no one is guaranteed tomorrow.

Moses ends the verse with saying that we can gain a heart of wisdom if we realize that we should not waste away our time. Moses wanted those he was leading to understand that they had only a short period of time to get right with God. That God would and will judge us all when we leave this life and enter eternity.

A heart of wisdom can be found in those who live this life seeking God and preparing for eternity. Eternity will come, for every one of us, so are we preparing now for where we will spend it?

“Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.” Ephesians 6:6 NIV

How do you behave when no one is looking? I believe that how you behave when you are alone and no one can see you or will know what you are doing, is the ‘real’ you, the way you really feel about life and your circumstances in your heart. It is funny to say ‘when you are alone’ because we are never truly alone, we always have God with us.

Paul is addressing servants in this verse, but I believe that Paul is also talking about where our hearts belong. Obviously as a servant, the person is expected to do what they are to do no matter if the master is there or not. However, if we look deeper in this verse, Paul is saying that they are to be doing the will of God which is to obey and do what they are to do not out of fear of the master but out of respect for God.

If our hearts are full of fear of our boss or others being disappointed in us, then pleasing them is where we will place our time and effort. When we are afraid to offend another person by not doing what they ask us to do or we only do something so that the other person is happy, then we are a people-pleaser and that is where our heart belongs – pleasing people.

When our focus becomes listening to God and following through with what He is directing us to do, when we want to do what we do to honor and glorify God with it, then we are a Christ-pleaser. Our heart belongs to God. We are to follow authority and do what we are instructed to do, I am not saying to buck authority. I am also not saying that we should not do things to help others, to make sure their needs are met or not do things because it will please them. What I am saying is that our motives are very important.

When our motive is to make sure that everyone around us likes us because we do what they want even if we know it is wrong, then our motive is to win the favor of people not God. When our motive is to make sure that we are doing what we believe we are being directed by God to do, which sometimes can offend someone because we are not behaving the way they want us to behave, our motive is to win the favor of God.

So my question for everyone today is…….what is your motive – to win the favor of people or of God?

“The way of the Lord is a refuge for the blameless, but it is the ruin of those who do evil.” Proverbs 10:29 NIV

Proverbs is a book of the Bible that is filled with wisdom. This verse found in the 10th chapter is no different. It tells us when we focus on the Lord, listen to His direction in how we should live our lives, we are able to find refuge in Him.

The opposite is true as well, when we decide we are not going to listen to God’s direction for our lives, we can not expect to be able to go to Him for protection. Our sinful nature sometimes makes it hard for us to listen for God’s voice and then follow His lead. However, following our own way, making choices that are not in line with God’s will for our lives, only leads to ruin.

Which way do you want to choose….refuge or ruin?

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Philippians 2:3-4 NIV

Paul is talking with the church in Philippi about how to live as a Christian, being like minded and having the heart of a servant. My mother was the epitome of this verse. She was always doing for others, buying things for others before she would get something for herself. She didn’t like to go through a food line until everyone else went through. The normal for her was to try and help those around her who looked like they needed help. The thing was that most of the time, by anyone else’s standards, she was the one who needed help more than those around her that she decided needed help.

Towards the end of her life, she did not walk very well. She would ride those electric carts through the store, but when we got outside she would insist on walking by pushing the cart to the car. As we walked out of the store with her groceries, she would be looking around to see if anyone needed help. As soon as she saw someone who looked like they needed help, she wanted to help them. Again towards the end of her life, she was not able to help them since she did not walk very well herself. Since she could not get to them, she would nudge me to go help them. This meant leaving her with the cart that she was barely pushing on her own and going to help the other person. The times that I tried to resist this and stay with her were usually not pleasant for me because she would scold me and I would end up going and helping the other person. Her love of others and desire to see them not have to struggle was more important to her than her desire to not struggle herself.

Throughout my life, this was how she operated. We did not have a lot of money but each holiday she would notice a family that had less than we did and she would invite them to share in our meal. Her value of others above herself showed me how to value their needs before mine.

When we value others above ourselves, we are not saying that others are better than us, we are saying that we love others enough to want to see their needs being met before our needs are met. After all, we do not deserve to be saved, but Christ valued us more than Himself when He died on the cross for us. When we put others first, we follow His instruction of loving others more than ourselves.

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.” Titus 2:11 NIV

As we look at this verse, the first thing I notice is the word ‘for’, which could be substituted with the word ‘because‘. Because the grace of God has appeared, salvation is now available to all men. This speaks to the intent that God had when He let His grace appear, which was to save all men.

The next part of the verse is ‘the grace of God has appeared’. Grace from God is undeserved merit or favor. We didn’t and still don’t deserve to receive God’s grace, but He has offered it anyway. That grace is Jesus, Who came to earth, appeared. The phrase ‘that offers salvation’, indicates to us that Jesus did not come to earth to just be here, or see what it was like to live here, He came to save us. He is the grace of God, Who came down to earth to save us.

When we see ‘to all people’, let us remember that ALL means ALL, not just some, not just the ones who appear to be worthy of saving, not just the ones Jesus likes. It means ALL, every last one of us, no matter what denomination, ethnicity, gender, physical capabilities some one has, ALL are being offered this gift of salvation.

So we have a verse that is telling us that God intentionally sent Jesus to offer salvation to every last person. If God was that intentional about wanting to save us, are we intentional about accepting it? Once we have accepted God’s gracious gift of salvation, what are we doing with it, are we being intentional in our pursuit of following God’s will. God intentionally sent His Son to die on the cross for us, He intentionally offered that gift of grace to us.

Have you accepted this amazing gift?

“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” James 1:22 NLT

Imagine if you will, that you are 16 years old again and are learning to drive a car. You read the driver’s manual from cover to cover, you attend class with the instructor, and you then watch each person you ride with to see how they are doing the different actions needed to be a successful and safe driver. The time comes for you to put that information you have been gathering to use and get behind the wheel to drive the car, and you just sit there. You don’t act on any of the information you have, instead you are content to simply have the knowledge but not use it to become a driver.

Reading the Bible is wonderful, listening to Christian radio is great, attending church and hearing God’s word through sermons is inspiring, but if the knowledge you gain from each of those avenues simply stays locked in your brain, then according to this scripture you are fooling yourself. That seems pretty harsh, doesn’t it? James doesn’t seem to be pulling punches here.

It is wonderful to know that Jesus loves you and died for you. It is great to know how to handle life situations you have heard about during sermons at church or on podcasts. It is inspiring to know that you could help change another person’s life by sharing God’s word with them, inviting them to church, but unless you do something with the information you have gained, nothing changes for you or your destination. It is just like the example above, all the information about driving does you really no good unless you put it into practice. Until you do it, you are not a driver, you are still a passenger and living life as a Christian is the same way.

What ‘action’ do you need to do? The action is accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. The action is true obedience. The action is applying what you have learned through your reading and hearing of God’s word to your life. The action changes your path from a destination of destruction to the destination of salvation. Simply hearing does not save you, only Jesus can do that and only if you act upon it beginning with accepting His gracious gift.

Have you accepted it yet? Are you doing anything with the information you have heard about?

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 NIV

Have you ever tried to keep a secret? I have and it feels like the greater the secret, the more exciting it is, the harder it is to keep. I want to tell someone, maybe even shout it out loud. That is what I think of when I read this verse. Once we believe that Jesus died for our sins and that God raised Him from the dead because He loves us, we tend to not want to keep it inside. We want to tell others this exciting news that Jesus is Lord, that He is our Lord. By sharing this wonderful news with others we are also showing Jesus that we are not afraid to let others know that Jesus is part of our lives, that the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts.

I believe this is important because Jesus wasn’t afraid to let everyone know who He was there to save. He told anyone who would listen that He was there to save all of mankind, the world, if they would only believe in the Son. If we are afraid to let others know that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, then maybe we are not really committed to following Jesus.

Please remember that when we decide to follow Jesus, we are given this wonderful gift. A gift that changes so many things in our lives, how we think, how we behave, how we spend our time, how we interact with others, where we will spend eternity. A gift that we should not want to hide from anyone but share with everyone, so others who are not followers of Jesus can hear about Him and decide for themselves if they want to accept this amazing gift of grace or not.

As you go about your day today, please ask yourself if you have said out loud that Jesus is your Lord? Do you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead? If you believe and haven’t said it out loud, what is stopping you?